Okay, so I looked at the best sources for sticky blog traffic in my last post.  Now, I’m going to flip the coin and look at the worst sources for sticky blog traffic.

The sources below will, in all likelihood, bring you short-term traffic, and in some cases may even bring repeat visitors.  But the reasons for repeat visits will be less to do with reading your blog, and more to do with visiting your blog for purely personal gains (I’ll explain below)….

 

Paid For Traffic

There are a lot of companies (loose term) out there who will offer to send “10,000 laser-targeted visitors” to your blog for the princely sum of a few dollars.  Sound too good to be true?  That’s because it is. 

Whatever you do, if you’re looking for sticky blog traffic, do not pay anyone to send visitors your way.  The majority of these companies will use bots to simulate real-life visitors.  Think about it, how many companies actually have the clout to send thousands of relevant people to your blog for a few dollars?  Not many.  Avoid at all costs, keep your hard-earned cash in your pocket, or at least spend it more productively on your blog promotions.  Or give it to me….

Entrecard

Entrecard, for those of you who may be unfamiliar with it, is a way to advertise on other blogs by way of an Entrecard widget.  By ‘dropping’ on other peoples blogs, you gain credits which you can then use to advertise on other blogs.

I have an Entrecard widget on my blog, as I’ve just started to experiment with ways in which to best utilise this medium.  My experience so far, though, indicates that although the use of Entrecard is driving traffic to my blog, the only reason people are visiting (in the vast majority of cases) is to drop their card on my blog to earn credits.  This is reflected in my bounce rate (which has shot up) and the average time spent on my site (which has plummeted) since I installed the Entrecard widget.

I’m not overly concerned with the fact that the people who are visiting my blog aren’t ‘sticky’.  What I am trying to do is gain some exposure for my blog as it is still in its infancy.  Entrecard enables me to do this without any outlay or too much exertion on my part.  I’ve been dropping my card on around a hundred other blogs a day (on average) and this sends around 50 or so different people to my blog every day.  Even if most of those visitors are only coming here to drop their card, there’s a chance that one or two people may actually read the content of my blog and (hopefully) like it enough that they want to come back again.

For pure blog exposure regardless of the type of reader, Entrecard may be classed as a useful tool.  But if you’re only looking for sticky blog traffic, using Entrecard may the least efficient way to go about it.

Digg / StumbleUpon / Other Social Media Sites

A controversial entry, but in my opinion these social media tools (among others) have little merit for gaining sticky blog traffic.  Gaining steady blog traffic should revolve around great content blog-wide.  Places like Digg and StumbleUpon promote great articles / posts / pictures, and not entire sites.

Now and again, it’s a good idea to submit your best articles / blog posts to social media sites like the two mentioned, because if they really are of high-quality, then you may get a lot of visitors to your blog.  But the likely scenario is that once this traffic has been and gone, you’ll have trouble getting them back to your blog again.

By their very nature, sites like Digg and StumbleUpon allow users to quickly surf the best of the web, as nominated by their peers.  Users are most likely to jump from post to post / article to article / site to site without much thought for your blog.  You may write a fantastic pillar article, and it may attract a brief flurry of visitors, but after that, your traffic levels will, in all likelihood, level out again, and I’m sure that you won’t have gained any sticky blog traffic from the sudden traffic surge.  Though it sure is fun when your traffic stats for the day take a massive jump….

 

The three different sections listed above may, at some point, send short-term traffic to your blog.  And in the case of the social media sites, you may experience a large daily jump in unique visitors.

But overall, if you are looking to focus on gaining sticky blog traffic for your blog, then it’s probably best if these areas of blog promotion are avoided.  If you’re looking for tips to help you gain more sticky blog traffic, then here are my best sources for sticky blog traffic.

Related blog post(s):

Sticky Blog Traffic - An Introduction
The Best Sources For Sticky Blog Traffic

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